Inside the rise of sports betting in the United States
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 748 Ratings
🗓️ 24 November 2025
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Sports used to be about the game. Now, for millions of fans, it’s about the bet. A 2018 Supreme Court decision turned sports into a multibillion-dollar machine — one that’s fuelling addiction and hitting young men the hardest. How did a quiet policy change unleash an industry preying on America’s loneliest, most financially anxious people?
In this episode:
- Isaac Rose-Berman (@roundrobin42), Gambling Fellow at American Institute for Boys and Men
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Melanie Marich, Haleema Shah, and Diana Ferrero with Phillip Lanos, Spencer Cline, Tamara Khandaker, Tracie Hunte, Noor Wazwaz, Farhan Rafid, Fatima Shafiq, and Malika Bilal. It was edited by Kylene Kiang and Alexandra Locke.
The Take production team is Marcos Bartolomé, Sonia Bhagat, Spencer Cline, Sarí el-Khalili, Diana Ferrero, Tracie Hunte, Tamara Khandaker, Kylene Kiang, Phillip Lanos, Chloe K. Li, Melanie Marich, Catherine Nouhan, and Noor Wazwaz. Our editorial interns are Farhan Rafid and Fatima Shafiq. Our host is Malika Bilal.
Our engagement producers are Adam Abou-Gad and Vienna Maglio. Andrew Greiner is lead of audience engagement.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad al-Melhem. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Today, the meteoric rise of sports gambling in the United States. |
| 0:17.1 | A Pew Research survey from this summer found 22% of adults have bet money on sports over the last year and specifically a quarter of all men. |
| 0:27.0 | How did sports betting go from illegal in most states to inescapable in under a decade? |
| 0:34.9 | I'm Malika Bilal and this is the take. |
| 0:45.3 | Thank you. I'm Malika Bilal and this is The Take. Hey everyone, as you're watching today, leave us a comment below sharing your thoughts on this episode |
| 0:50.0 | and what stories you want us to do next. |
| 0:52.9 | Or on your podcast app, leave us a review, telling us where |
| 0:56.1 | you're listening from, and a rating with what you think. Five stars would be great. Thanks. |
| 1:04.6 | My name is Isaac Rose Berman. I'm a fellow at the American Institute for Boys and Men, where I focus on |
| 1:10.2 | gambling, policy, and research. |
| 1:12.7 | Isaac, welcome to The Take. I'm looking forward to this conversation. In a few days, as many families in |
| 1:18.6 | the U.S. gather for Thanksgiving, the TV will likely be on in the background. It might have |
| 1:24.7 | football, basketball, maybe even some hockey. It's a familiar background noise. |
| 1:30.2 | But the news coming out of the sports world lately has been dominated by scandals centered around sports betting. |
| 1:37.9 | Nearly every sport has had some players and or coaches either charged with a crime or punished by their league for activities |
| 1:44.9 | related to sports betting. |
| 1:47.0 | Should the average fan, who never places a bet, be worried about the integrity of the game |
| 1:52.5 | that they're watching? |
| 1:55.8 | So sports betting has been going on for hundreds of years. |
| 1:59.7 | These scandals have been around for a really long time, |
| 2:02.4 | but they've escalated in recent years because in 2018, the Supreme Court gave states the rights |
... |
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